Isn’t religious freedom condemned by the Syllabus of Pope Pius IX?
The Syllabus of 1864 did not condemn religious freedom in its true and proper sense. Rather, it condemned the errors of religious indifferentism and moral license (Syllabus 15). In addition, it condemned those propositions (Syllabus 77-79) that would deny in principle the very right of existence of the Catholic sacral regime constituted on the basis of unity in faith. The prerequisite condition of unity in the faith must still exist, however, in order for a Catholic sacral regime to be a legitimate reality in law (de jure) and in fact (de facto). The Catholic Encyclopedia (1912), however, notes some important dynamics — effects of “globalization” — that have impacted the requisite conditions for such states since the time of the Syllabus: “The mixture of races and peoples, the immigration into all lands, the adoption of international laws concerning colonization and choice of abode, the economic necessity of calling upon the workers of other lands, etc., have so largely changed the r
